I took down some flags and DH wasn’t happy

[LittleChopper]

On my commute today, I noticed someone had hung three large St George flags on a bridge coming out of our village. They have been popping up everywhere but this particular instance I thought “I’m not having that”. On the way home I pulled over and took them down.

when I got home and DH asked why I was binning three large flags I told him and he.. had some interesting opinions. He told me I shouldn’t be pissing off people in the village, that they have every right to hang an England flag in England, and that I’m being too political.

For a start, I would argue that I’ve always been quite strongly opinionated so he shouldn’t be surprised I did it.

Just as others have the right to their opinion I have mine. We have people in the village who are migrants… why should they have to look at that. It’s clear why they were hanging there given what’s going on at the moment and I’ve never see a flag hanging in the village in the decade we’ve been here so why else would they be there now.

I’m just so disappointed with it all. With the UK, with DH.

Next time maybe I’ll add to the collection instead. 🇬🇷🇮🇪🇮🇳🇦🇫🇧🇸🇵🇰🇪🇸🇸🇩🇿🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Well yeah, it does. If someone graffities a bus stop and I clean it up, I'm performing a public service. For free.

Same with the flags. They're actually a form of vandalism when hung on bridges etc. There's a reason people aren't actually allowed to just hang anything they like over a motorway.

Why should migrants have to look at the flag of the country they chose to come to?!

It’s not YOUR village. You don’t own it, it doesn’t belong to you.

But it’s being used to showcase divisive and racist views. I don’t want to see my national flag being used for that. Why should I have to see the obnoxious display of flags all over the area I live in along with vandalised roundabouts and road signs? It’s grim and being forced upon people who don’t want to see it. Our local council aren’t even taking them down because they are afraid of the backlash so by next month all of these cheap flags (probably from china) will be ripped, stained and flapping around like complete eyesores.

It's not their village either though, is it? The OP has got the exact same right to enjoyment of it as the flag shaggers hangers.

You mean you prefer to believe one form of propaganda over another. That’s not a great look to be honest.

Are you and others claiming ignorance of why seeing multiple English flags popping up may be frightening to some people being deliberately obtuse? In an increasingly (openly) xenophobic country where migrants are frequently demonised, you can't see why some people might find the sudden appearance of multiple English flags - in a country that has never flown flags often - threatening?

I'm always glad to see the flag in people's windows and gardens, then I know who to avoid. Having said that I've had them on my car during the World Cup and Euros, but this doesn't seem to happen anymore.

It’s not racist to fly English flags in England and the people arriving will know it’s England.
But they are being put up to tell the government we’re upset about the situation in reality.
I agree with legal migration in managed numbers and welcome and appreciate it we can all be enriched by meeting people from different countries and some are amazing and kind people but the illegal immigrant situation in England is out of hand were a small island It’s too many people.
I can’t even take my children to the local park because the people who live in the hotel very close to us are hiding in the hedges filming the children and I dread to think what would happen if kids were alone. why record a six year old riding her bike they are not safe to be around children. We shouldn’t have to live like this it’s there actions as apparent guests in the country I object to not where there from and the £9 million a day it’s costing us to house them from taxpayers money when the NHS is on the brink of collapse and the education system is failing is just wrong it’s our money the government are mismanaging it.
As for the flag it’s an expression of someone else’s opinion and because you don’t agree with it you took it away if that makes you feel better so be it.
I think you would in all honesty feel differently if you had a hotel at the end of your street because I no longer feel safe in my own house.

Is that the best response you've got? Your picking me up on a spelling mistake is petty, and so what if I've misspelt a word? If rather do that than have no common sense.

Well I'm proud to be British and I don't like the flags either. They're ugly and divisive and if they were hung in my village - which thankfully they're not - then they would make me feel unwelcome too. The pearl clutchers can clutch their pearls as much as they like but we all know why that is. Doing something deliberately to make others feel uncomfortable has the entirely unsurprising consequence of...making people feel uncomfortable.

Love the idea of the multicoloured flag saying stop the racists.
Am going to see if I can find one online to hang from my gate!

I am honestly sick to the back teeth of people thinking they know the hearts and minds of an entire group of people when they are not one homogenous mass. It’s fuelling the division

Like the racists they probably lack the insight to work that one out, @WhereIsMyJumper. Nobody with sense would suggest that every immigrant shares a similar mindset, but to some it's okay to insist that every flag flyer does

If you are labelling everyone who is concerned about uncontrolled immigration as 'racist' you are part of the problem.
Believing that British people shouldn't be responsible for the welfare of any random person from anywhere in the world that chooses to rock up here, even if they are dangerous, or have cultural beliefs that are totally incompatible with our own, is not 'racist'

Cleaning up graffiti is different because you’re restoring public property.
Taking down a flag that someone put up, even if it’s on a bridge, is still interfering with someone else’s actions and could get you in trouble. That’s why it’s the authorities’ job to handle it, not individuals.

Yes, I find the arrogance of forcing this on everyone incredible. There is absolutely no consensus for hanging them from every conceivable post.

The flag has never been banned in my town - it is displayed in several spots - so there is no room to argue that they’re reacting to some liberal ban on national pride.

Good question, I’m sure we could ponder such an unironic topic extensively.

I remember us putting one up in the window in 1996 for the Euros semi final. Now look ...

Well one is official figures and the other is guesses from randos on Twitter. One is "propaganda" and one isn't. You believe propaganda.

I see what you're saying here, and I would agree that sometimes letting things burn themselves out is the best solution, but when it comes to fascism, bigotry and racism, this doesn't work. Staying silent means being complicit.

Do you not realise that "following suit" means the same as "breaking the rules too"? It's so weird how you're happy to support the unlawful actions of one group whilst decrying the unlawful actions of the other.

It doesn't belong to the flag shaggers either.

Said in uncle Bryn’s voice 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

You don’t want to prioritise your own citizens.
You want the hard working, highly educated brown person who owns a nice house, has a high paying job, decent car to not have all that. That should be a white person instead in your mind.

Council workers in Tower Hamlets won't remove Palestinian flags for the same reason !

What a lot of nonsense on this thread. The faux naivety is staggering. So any one disagreeing with the flag wavers is a ‘leftist’ 🙄
The people putting flags up and graffitiing our streets are hardly respecting ‘our National flag’, they’ve been encouraged to put flags up by the likes of far right groups run by criminals such as Stephen Yaxley Lennon. Where were all these flags on actual St George’s Day? If people want to fly the flag, let them do it on their own property and we’ll soon see what their motives are. There’s nothing wrong at all with supporting the English flag for sporting events, national events (eg Coronation) and St George’s Day, there’s everything wrong with it being grabbed by far right groups, as they’ve tried to do since the 70’s (Remember the National Front, British National Party etc?). We need to reclaim our flag from these racist groups who are encouraging flag waving at the minute, we don’t need to support them.
I despair of the wide eyed (good phrase, PP) ‘aren’t you proud of our flag’ brigade.